Blogs - Comment(s)

Oh boy, Junior’s almost out of college–Oops, what do we do about health insurance?

06-04-2009 by Colleen King

It’s getting to be that time of year when the four years of college (or five, or six) is about to wind up. At last. That tuition bill is going to be gone and the kid(s) will be out of the house. Then it occurs to mom and dad (not usually to the new grad) that their young adult can’t stay on their insurance policy any longer.

Carriers allow full time college students to stay on their parents’ coverage until age 23, 24, or even 25. As the hassle with pre-existing conditions continues to increase, some carriers are talking about increasing the age a kid can stay on their parents’ policy, even if they aren’t in college. But we aren’t quite there yet.

This little detail can easily escape everyone since finals and planning for graduation are a lot more interesting. I had this situation come up last year with a family, and there are a couple ways to do it. It was a Friday, college graduation was Saturday, the new grad was turning 24 on Sunday so as of Sunday, she was going to be uninsured and Mom was panicking.

We could have done a regular policy, but since that usually takes 2-4 weeks, the young woman wouldn’t have been covered. Instead, we elected to do a short term health plan. These will vary from state to state, so what I’m relating here pertains specifically to California. These plans I refer to as ‘accident and illness’ policies. They don’t cover anything routine, they don’t cover pre-existing conditions or maternity, but if you get sick or have an injury you have coverage. And, because it doesn’t cover anything pre-existing the underwriting, or review of the application, is much quicker. We can usually get a response in a couple of days.

So the short term health plan was how we handled it. These can be kept on a month to month basis, up to a maximum of 6 months, and if you’ve not had any claims, you can renew it for up to another six months. These plans are also really useful in situations where you get a new job, you don’t have benefits for the first 90 days of employment and you don’t want to pay the exorbitant cost of COBRA. I’ve used these many times and while they aren’t ideal due to the fact that they are short term, they sure can be a great stop gap. And the carrier I use most, if you go to an emergency room for an injury, the deductible is waived. I wish all policies would do that!